Deeplinks Blog posts about Patents

A Federal Judge in Illinois recently ruled (PDF) that the infringement claims asserted by Helferich Patent Licensing, LLC—the notorious troll who owns patents on sending links to cell phones—did not hold up, all thanks to a doctrine known as "patent exhaustion."

We've not talked much about the International Trade Commission (ITC) here, but something quite interesting happened there over the weekend. The White House stepped in and, in a notable and rare move, overruled a ban limiting importation of certain Apple products. That ban was based on an ITC finding of patent infringement, but the White House overruled it based on—get this—the public interest.

In the midst of a tidal wave of momentum in the fight against patent trolls, we're proud to launch Trolling Effects (trollingeffects.org), a resource to empower would-be victims of patent trolls through a crowdsourced database of patent demand letters and a clearinghouse for information on the troll epidemic. The site allows demand letter recipients to post the documents online, find letters received by others, and research who is really behind such threats.

Traditionally, D.C. slows down over the summer months. This year, that is not the case with patent reform. Two new bills have already been introduced since Congress returned from its July 4th recess.

The first, a comprehensive bill called the Patent Litigation and Innovation Act, was introduced by Reps. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). It includes many of the types of reforms we've been talking about, such as:

Today EFF joins a coalition of 50 organizations to send a letter to Congress urging the legislature to focus on finding—and passing—effective solutions to patent abuse. This letter brings together a strikingly diverse group of companies—including retailers, application developers, and financial services institutions—as well as public interest organizations like Public Knowledge and EFF. Together, we call on Congress to take immediate action to curb destructive patent troll litigation.